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Answer & Explanation:hi broI need you read this article number 1 to 5and writing short thinking about this article UEIN EMILY CASSIDY.docx
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EDUC 202: URBAN EDUCATION IN THE NEWS
Your Name: Emily Cassidy
Title of Article and DATE: (no earlier than June 2014) WKYT Investigates | Only 1 in 4
dropouts back in school in Lexington. September 4, 2015
Author of Article: Mark Barber
Source of Article: WKYT News
URL: http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/WKYT-Investigates-truancy-law-rollout–Only-1in-4-dropouts-back-in-school-in-Lexington-323416851.html
1. Main ideas of article:
A new law has been passed in Kentucky that changed the age to drop out of school from
16 to 18. In Kentucky, especially Fayette County, school officials have not been very
successful in getting the dropouts under 18 back into schools.
2. Critical Analysis:
The new law has the potential to alter so many lives; most importantly, the lives of the students
who have dropped out. The teens that dropped out before they were 18, now have the opportunity, and
are required to earn their high school degree, or at least achieve as much as they before they turn 18,
which, hopefully, will be able to get them higher paying jobs. However, tracking down and forcing
students who have already expressed how much they do not want to be in school, has the potential to
be detrimental to the schools, teachers, and the students who decided to stay in school. The teenagers
who have been tracked down and forced back to school, probably will not be too happy about being
back in school and may cause disruption in the classroom, posing problems for the teachers to deal
with, and negatively affect the education of the other students who are trying to learn. Those who
dropped out have already seen what it is like to be out on their own without school, and more than
likely do not want to go back to school. There even is a small chance that they might have gotten jobs,
or established lives outside of school, and are now being tracked down and taken away from the new
life they have without school. It is interesting that instead of saying the reason for establishing and
implementing this law is to ensure that teens will graduate and have a better life, but instead, “It’s first
goal is to keep students in school longer so they will have a greater chance at becoming educated, taxpaying citizens that will benefit society,” (1 Barber). It is clear that the government has a not so hidden
agenda that they are trying to force the teens back into school not to improve their lives, but to
enhance the amount of revenue brought in through taxes. By tracking down and forcing teens back
into school, it is essentially going to have an adverse affect on urban schools because most dropouts
are from poorer areas. Urban schools already have a lot of issues to deal with, but throwing students
that obviously do not want to be in school into the mix is going to cause an additional headache to all
those involved with the schools. In conclusion, it is probably a good thing that the schools are having
such a difficult time tracking down dropouts because forcing the teens to go back to school would be a
burden on everyone else in the schools, outweighing the benefits that the dropouts could provide to
society.
3. Challenges to your assumptions about the issue:
One could challenge my assumptions by saying that it is better to attempt to get those few
teens back in school because there is still the chance that being in school for those two
additional years could better the society. There is such a small chance that one of those
dropouts, that once back in school, could do something for the great good of society that
other wise would have not been possible had they not been forced back into the schooling
system. One could have the argument that its better to try and see what happens when
putting those students back in school, versus letting more and more students drop out at
the age of 16.
4. New questions/ideas that the article raises for you:
It raises the question of how is it legal to force those who have already dropped out to go
back to school? Would it not make more sense to grandfather the law into the schools to save
the time and effort of those who are responsible to track down the dropouts?
What kind of social effects would forcing dropouts back into school have on them? Would
the other students and teachers at the schools treat the dropouts differently? Additionally is
there the potential for the students who did not drop out to bully or act condescendingly
towards the newly reenrolled dropouts?
5. Action you could take to address issue in the article:
The main action that I would take to address the issue about tracking down dropouts to get
them back into school is to stop trying. The students clearly do not want to be in school, have
already been out, so putting them back into school would have an adverse affect. While I
agree with the law that 16 is entirely too young to make such a drastic choice of dropping out
of school that affects the rest of your life, forcing dropouts back is not the solution. Instead,
grandfathering the law in and making it illegal for anyone from the date the law was passed
and on to not be able to drop out until they are 18.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – This summer lawmakers raised the dropout age in Kentucky from 16 to
18 because thousands of students are dropping out of high school each year.
The Department of Education says those dropouts are a problem for Kentucky because a high
percentage of them go on to drain state resources.
Some state lawmakers hoped passing Senate Bill 97 would fix that.
The new truancy law is two pronged. Its first goal is to keep students in school longer so they will
have a greater chance at becoming educated, tax-paying citizens that will benefit society. The
second part of the law mandates that school districts find dropouts under 18 and get them back into
school.
Difficulty finding dropouts
Some school leaders are struggling to locate their dropouts.
In Fayette County, they have only been able to get one in four of their dropouts back into school.
“There have been challenges,” said Steve Hill.
Hill is the Director of Pupil Personnel in Fayette County. He says they have only been able to get 27
of their 109 dropouts back in class.
“We had 27 respond and that’s actually better than what we thought because in that a lot of
addresses have changed, some kids may have already received their GEDs,” he explained.
Lynne Switzer, Scott County’s Director of Student Services, has traded in her office for the road
while she works to track down missing students. She’s driving door-to-door, looking for dropouts.
“It is absolutely the last way. We’ve called, we’ve mailed, we’ve emailed and now we’re going,” she
explained.
The law is backdated, so some information Switzer is using to find missing students is outdated.
Many teens have changed their phone numbers and moved in the past two years, leading Switzer
on ghost runs.
“For a couple of students the home was empty, just vacant, completely vacant,” Switzer described.
She says she has found a dozen dropouts and they are now back in school but she is still trying to
find a dozen more.
Helping dropouts readjust to the classroom
The 27 teenagers who have been found in Fayette County have missed a lot in the year or two
they’ve been out of school.
“A lot of these kids were credit deficient so our goal is to provide services to make sure we can either
accelerate credit recovery or get them in their appropriate place within our schools,” said Hill.
Counselors are working with each student who is trying to readjust to the classroom.
“There are some kids that just have troubles in their life at home, some that have mental health
issues, anxiety, some are frustrated because they didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and
maybe failed a couple courses early, some that didn’t take it serious,” Hill said.
Switzer takes her home visits seriously because it’s her last chance to offer dropouts an education.
If she can find them, she always asks, “What can we do for you to make it work? It didn’t work last
time, we are ready to make it work, what can we do?”
There’s only so much she can do to track the teens down but every time she strikes out, she
remembers why she is knocking on doors.
“You have to focus on the positive. Every story is a success story. I would rather focus on the ones
we got than the ones we lost,” said Switzer.
Is the truancy law effective?
According to the Kentucky Department of Education’s most recent numbers, there were more than
4,400 high school dropouts in the 2013 – 2014 school year. Many of those teenagers are still
missing.
With only one in four dropouts back in school in Lexington, WKYT’s Mark Barber asked the state
senator who sponsored the truancy law if he thinks it’s effective.
Senator David Givens says he is surprised and disappointed with the rollout but he thinks the
problem will correct itself with time because students who are coming into high school will no longer
be able to dropout until they turn 18.
School districts tell WKYT if they try to contact a dropout several times and they don’t hear back from
them or their parents they stop trying to find them because there is nothing else they can do to track
them down.
…
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